Crusader Kings III RP: Jesus Returns!

[vcczar]

Emperor Andronik goes on a year-long spree of the capture-conversion policy of Jesus, spreading the true Christianity, but when he returns, he's confronted by his vassal, the King of Syria who confronts the Emperor and demands the dissolution of the Empire. 

Andronik, the craven coward that he is, obliges. 

The now King Andronik of Jerusalem rules only the slim territory of Palestine, as the bulk of Arabia gains independence along with the King of Syria and other King and Duke-level nations. They are at least of the proper faith. 

All the expansionist gains made by the successors of Jesus have now been lost. 

 

[vcczar]

King Andronika is basically rendered to conversion and diplomacy as he is strictly a pacifist, more out of fear than out of belief. Through a marriage and diplomacy, he inherits the southern part of Greece, which he creates as a dukedom for his 2nd son. 

 

[vcczar]

King Andronik has spent the last several years attempting to diffuse the spread of Catharism in Arabia and helping allies win their wars. In the process, the nobles get increasingly upset that Andronik has few ambitions for his own Kingdom. The Dukes of his Kingdom confront the King, who then dissolves the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 

Andronik is now Prince Andronik of Palestine with territory including only the area of Jerusalem. He has less territory than Jesus had started with.  (See image)

Without the protection of his father, Andronik, Duke Zviad in the southern part of Greece is vassalized by the Byzantine Emperor. 

Several members of the House of Nazareth create cadet branches, such as the House of Nazareth-Said, possibly to distance themselves from the head of the house. Some completely change their name, such as the House of Ben Michael. 

Prince Andronik survives a poisoning. 

Following the poisoning, through diplomatic maneuvering, he is able to inherit territory along part of the coast, and restores the Kingdom of Jerusalem (albeit a smaller version)!

[vcczar]

The last decade or so of King Andronik's reign has been peaceful. Aside from aiding allies, especially Persia (ruled by his nephew), he hasn't been engaged in much other than development. 

It would be interesting how history would judge Andronik. It's easy to call him a weak ruler, but he also ended imperialism, allowed for several nations to prosper by letting them go, avoided engaging in huge wars (even to keep his nation together), etc. However, if one is judging these rulers only by how well they led their particular nation, he's easily the worst so far. 

Here's the political situation as I haven't shown it in awhile. 

 

[vcczar]

Here's the religious situation below. 

 

[DakotaHale]

I started a new CK3 play through recently. Highly recommend the “Community mods for historicity” modlist.

[vcczar]

King Andronik expands his territory by permitting warfare against the minor nations that replace Christianity with Islam. If you look at the Religion map from my recent post, you'll see some Green in there, and Andronik easily annexed that sliver of territories, totally four former minor nations. 

Andronik also commissions the first epic for his nation, requesting that it be as truthful as possible, which means it would reflect his own weaknesses. 

He inherits some Persian lands from relatives. He remarries, this time to a woman from the Indian subcontinent, and has a new son at age 84 as he's dying. 

No further major events occur during the long reign of Andronik. He reigned for 47 years. 

His son, Zviad becomes the new King of Jerusalem, but under the Greek title of Despot, as Zviad is culturally Greek. His rise to the throne will cause strife with the Byzantine Emperor, as the former Greek lands of the Byzantine Empire are now part of Jerusalem. Zviad's goal is to use Greece as a launching pad to take out the Pope by annexing Rome. 

His heir is Jarji, a 35-year-old drunk. 

Below, you can see the state of affairs for Zviad, as his Kingdom is broken into three pieces. 

 

 

[vcczar]

Zviad, using his possessions in Southern Greece as a launching pad, declares a Holy War on the Papacy. After a two-year battle, that actually sees his allies winning the war for him, for the most part, Zviad gains Papal territory, but falls short of annexing and destroying the Papal Institution, which followers of Jesus find to be a Satanic perversion of their teachings. 

Zviad makes his eldest son Duke of the Greek possessions, and then divides up land in Italy to give to his next four sons, three with the rank of Duke, and the youngest with the rank of Count. 

Zviad's goal is to finish off the Papacy and then declare war on Catholic countries. Having spent a lot of time as a Byzantine duke in Greece, Zviad, unlike his predecessors, is interested in European affairs. He would sell off his Eastern Territories if he could. 

 

[vcczar]

Zviad, after an 8-year war, takes out the Pope and take control of much of Italy. In the process he reestablished the Empire of Jerusalem, which had fallen under the weak rule of his father. 

Zviad at age 64 seems to be in better health than his drunk son Jarji. Next in line is Jarji's son, Bartholomew, who is currently 22 years old. Bartholomew's son, Alain, is two years old, although a bastard. The line seems to be going strong. 

Zviad also placed several members of the House of Nazareth in new landed positions at both the Duke and Count levels. 

 

[vcczar]

Zviad after a lengthy war, conquers Italy through both warfare and vassalizing. He returns to Rome and burns down the Vatican, which he sees as a temple to a corrupt version of the teaching of his direct ancestor Jesus of Nazareth. 

The Pope is compelled to convert to Zviad's Christianity. 

During this time, Zviad has been giving independence to several vassals, mostly in the East, as he's much more interested in European affairs, so much so that he is considering making Emperor of Italy his primary title, and possibly giving away the Empire of Jerusalem to one of his sons. 

 

[vcczar]

Since the last update, Emperor Viad inherited Egypt from his Uncle, which gave him enough strength to launch a long-lasting war on the Byzantine Empire. As this has been going on, Paulician nations throughout Europe have been request vassalization by the dozens. 

What's crazy, is that he can get territory without raising an army. Nation opt to join and because of diplomacy and marriages, his allies are so numerous he wins wars. In fact, he's winning the war against the Byzantine Empire and hasn't raised an army. 

The vassalizations have ended the rule of Charlemagne's dynasty, although he did give a Karling the Duchy of Brabant within his Empire. 

 

[vcczar]

The now 80-year-old ailing Emperor Zviad has taken the Byzantine Empire, and in the process, mended the Great Schism. 

He's placed his loyalists as despots, dukes, and counts. He won't be able to maintain this land, so he or his successor will likely release most of these nations soon. 

He has the option of claiming Constantinople as the capital, which is a step towards resurrecting the Roman Empire. However, as a descendant of Jesus of Nazareth, he's going to refrain from making that move, as Euro-centric as Zviad is. He'll leave the decision to his son or grandson. 

Zviad likely only has a few years left. His son and heir is also not in great health. 

 

[vcczar]

Emperor Zviad dies at age 82, after 29 years old rule. His 64 year old drunk son, Zarji, is now the Emperor. On Zviad's death, the Byzantine Empire regained independence, after being briefly annexed, and is governed by Zviad's son, Germanos. Another son of Zviad, Andronik, is now emperor of Italy. 

Emperor Zarji is expected to give independence to some of his far-flunk section of the Empire of Jerusalem. He hasn't the same ambitions as his father and likely won't be on the throne long. 

[vcczar]

Emperor Zarji begins to give independence to far-flung territories. As he's doing so, his nephew, Zviad, son of his brother Emperor Andronik of Italy threatens war if Zarji does not break up his Empire and become a vassal of the Empire of Italy. Zarji, who is drunk and ailing, agrees to do so. The Empire of Jerusalem is now only a Kingdom and a vassal of Italy. Zarji's fine with the arrangement so long as the House of Nazareth is still ruling. 

Below is the religious situation:

 

[vcczar]

King Jarji drinks himself to death at age 68, only a week or so after converting from the Greek culture to the Ashkenazi culture for his people. He ruled for 5 years. 

His son Bartholomew, aged 45, takes the throne. He has also adopted the Ashkenazi culture, despite having been born Greek. He is the 6x Great-Grandson of Jesus of Nazareth. His son and heir is 6-year-old Jarji. 

After a few years on the throne, King Bartholomew suffers a mental breakdown, despite not dealing with any sort of crisis, other than inheriting a mediocre, unambitious Kingdom of Jerusalem. He spends much of his early reign building up the city of Jerusalem, which had been neglected during his grandfather's expansionist reign.

A year or so later, he is hit with cancer and loses a leg during an operation. 

Following this, The Emperor of Italy, Zviad II, cousin of Bartholomew, declares himself Emperor of Jerusalem and demands that Bartholomew relinquish his title of King of Jerusalam and as Duke of Palestine. Bartholomew refuses, resulting in a war versus Italy.

Strangely, in the middle of this war, Zviad II asks Bartholomew to be the guardian of his son. Bartholomew accepts, considering if he should do something awful to the child or not. He opted not to do anything in hopes that he will be spared if he loses the war. 

Bartholomew has another cancer surgery and the cancer is removed, but he loses an eye.

After about five years, and mostly through the help of allies, the Empire of Italy is forced to end the assault on Jerusalem. Furthermore, Emperor Zviad II is deposed and replaced by Bartholomew's 2nd cousin, who is the grandson of his Uncle Andronik, the original Emperor of Italy, and brother of the old King Jarji.  

 

 

 

[vcczar]

King Bartholomew's cousin and liege, Emperor Belisarius, makes the Empire of Jerusalem his primary title. This prompts Bartholomew to gather support for an independence war. After about two years, he presses his claim, and the two rulers are at war. Fortunately for Bartholomew, he still has the insane House of Nazareth network of allies, so that while the cousin has the larger nation and larger military, Bartholomew + allies are about 3x larger. Despite this, the war takes about 10 years, even though it was clear who would ultimately win. 

Following the war, the world is faced with the confusion of having two similarly named nations: The Empire of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 

Below: The court of the one-eyed, one-legged King Bartholomew and his French-born Queen consort Stephanie. The man in blue on the right is one of his sons, Samuel. The green arm on the right is his grandson, Bartholomew. The Stewart attending him is a distant cousin of a cadet branch of the House of Nazareth. The guard on the left, to my knowledge, is unrelated. 

[vcczar]

Not long after Bartholomew's successful war of independence, Queen Stephania is murdered by his long-time lover Shluida ben David, a 44-year-old a pretty paranoid and ambitious peasant leader, who has aided Bartholomew during his rule, and consistently caused drama at the court. She's been his mistress for close to 30 years. Rather than execute or imprison Shluida, he marries her the day after the Queen's murder. All hail Queen Shluida!

She is soon with child, a daughter, which they name Shluida. 

Nestorian Christianity breaks out in France. In other news, for the first time, there is not a single Catholic ruler, although there are three small nations with Catholicism as the people's primary religion. 

Here's a map of the religious situation in Iberia, which is probably the most diverse in Europe. Bartholomew has been enacting the House of Nazarerth capture-conversion policy started by Jesus. Iberia has routinely been an issue as the Islamic nations tend to overthrow their Christian rulers fairly frequently. 

 

[vcczar]

King Bartholomew dies quite suddenly at age 75, after 30 years on the throne. His 36-year-old son becomes King Jarji II of Jerusalem. Hs cowardly 16-year-old son Thomas is his heir. 

King Jarji II's, the 7x great-grandson of Jesus of Nazareth, immediately converts from his birth culture (Greek) to that of his Kingdom (Ashkenazi). 

While not particularly interested in establishing the glory of an expansive Empire, Jarji is particularly bothered that there exists both an Empire of Jerusalem (ruled by a cousin) and a lesser Kingdom of Jerusalem ruled by himself. His goal for his reign is to elevate to Empire and nothing more, even if it means there are two empires with the same name. 

He has a casus belli (reason for war) against his three next-door-neighbors+Byzantine Empire. He's considering invading the Sulamids to the North as they are least related to him. 

He declares war on the Sulamids and decides to lead his army personally. Miraculously, he defeats an invading army 3x his size (I was preparing for him to lose and get captured!).

While on campaign is learned that the French-born queen, Adaltrudis, had an affair with another aristocrat and that the youngest daughter is not Jarji's child. As such, he divorces her, and marries a 20-year old Turkic princess. As soon as she has a son, who they name Jesus, he replaced cowardly Thomas as heir and names Jesus his heir. He disinherits his children from his unfaithful wife.

He defeats the Sulamids after winning another major battle in which he was outnumbered. The ends the war, and takes a county, not enough to upgrade to Empire. 

As he still has four mercenary units, he declares war on the Hashimud Kingdom. Jarji and one of his generals each score decisive battles against larger military forces. Then, with the help of arriving allies, the easily secure peace and terms. 

Jarji, as he extends the contracts of the mercenaries, and seems to have the right generals, then declares war on Egypt. In this war, Jarji loses his first battle, as he's both outnumbered and his troops are refusing to march. He then gets revenge by defeating that same army days later with the help of reinforcements. 

Ultimately, this war is won, but he's still short of an Empire. Below is a map of the nation before these wars. 

 

 

[vcczar]

After another series of successful wars, mostly won by his network of allies, Jarji II reestablishes the true Empire of Jerusalem. There are now two empires with the same name! Jarji II is content with that, but some are clamoring for a war against the other Empire of Jerusalem. 

[vcczar]

Emperor Jarji II bows to pressure and declares war on the other Empire of Jerusalem ruled by cousin Belisarius. I expected a long war, but Jarji's allies descended like flying piranhas completely ripping the Empire of Jerusalem to shreds. Jarji took his troops and easily sailed to Genoa and marched to their capital Milan and captured it without opposition. Within about two years the war was over. 

Here's the religion situation:

[vcczar]

Emperor Jarji II's impressive 24-year rule comes to an end.

The new emperor is 21-year-old Emperor Jesus. He is described as arrogant, impatient, but somehow calm. He's also a genius. The Queen is a 21-year-old Nubian named Nojjl, which means the heir to Jesus will be 1/2 African descent as the Queen's ancestors appear to be entirely African. The heir to the throne is newborn Prince Giza who is also a genius and was born with a 12 in learning! So he was born knowledgable and able to converse in history, politics, etc. 

Jesus's goal is to forcibly convert the remaining non-Paulician lands (See the map in the previous post as the religous situation hasn't changed much.) His first crusade will be against the neighbor Halidid Empire, which is refusing to convert their Cathar minority. 

[vcczar]

It has been over 40 years of gametime since the last update. This is because Emperor Jesus has been waging a continuous 40-year war on the world in order to ensure the original Christianity is the only religion. Expansion has been rapid with few hiccups. About 30% of nations request vassalization as the Empire of Jerusalem expands. Jesus is consistently marrying people off to secure or strengthen alliances and the allies do about 90% of all of the fighting, both externally and in preventing Civil Wars. Jesus's personal army is used only to seal the deal when the allies are capturing the capital. In most cases, a foreign foe is facing 300k-1 million soldiers to their measly 10k. Few wars are lasting longer than 2 years. 

Below is an image of the first time of peace in 40 years. Jesus is now in his 60s. His heir, Prince Giza, age 40, is still alive. Giza's son, King Jesus II of Lithuania, is 3rd in line. Emperor Jesus has been placing relatives or in-laws in Kingdoms across the world. Jesus has also just converted from Ashkenazi (Jewish) to the local culture, which is a hybrid Arabic and Jewish culture. His new appearance seems more Arabic than Jewish in my opinion. Until his 60s, he never had a beard. 

He will most likely live long enough to see the rest of Asia and Africa under his control. His plan is to then help convert the entire world and then split the world into seperate Empires. I doubt he lives long enough for the latter. 

 

[vcczar]

In the year 1091, Emperor Jesus of Jerusalem has united the world under one rule, although who knows how long he can hold it. Members of the House of Nazareth are spread all over and will soon be given independence. However, the world must be converted. Here's the religious situation. Emperor Jesus will look to replace vassal rulers who are not of his faith. 

 

[vcczar]

After only two years of known-world domination, Emperor Jesus decides to release independent Empires run by family members and in-laws. Unfortunately, the leaves his own Empire shredded around the world. 

I'll now go into observer mode to finish up this playthrough (Victoria 3 comes out in about 10 days). 

 

[vcczar]

As I'm trying to wrap this up before Victoria 3 release, I'll be posting updates text-only until the end from now on. Also, I'm grading papers, so can't actively play. It's on observer mode now. 

• Emperor Jesus died about five years after he released the several Empires under various relatives. 
• His son, Emperor Giza, did not reign too long. He helped in the conversion process, but he did very little that can be seen on the political map. He is the last Emperor of Jerusalem to use that title as their primary title for several decades.
• His son, Emperor Jesus II of the Baltic Empire, inherits the Empire of Jerusalem and uses it as a secondary title for several decades. About 40 years into his reign (in his mid 60s), he elevate the Empire of Jerusalem as his primary title (I actually went in and forced this as the whole narrative of this thread is about that).